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Santa Maria Madre della Provvidenza a Monte Verde
'Santa Maria Madre della Provvidenza a Monte Verde '''is a 20th century Fascist-era parish and titular church at Via di Donna Olimpia 35, near the Villa Doria Pamphilj in the Gianicolense quarter. The suburb is called Monteverde Nuovo. Pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons are here. The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of "Our Lady, Mother of Providence". History The parish was erected in 1937, and the church completed in the same year. It was designed by Tullio Rossi. Our Lady of Providence is originally a famous icon venerated at San Carlo ai Catinari. This hints that the original complex was intended to be administered by the Barnabites, who promote this devotion. Rossi built an entire small convent attached to the church, but the parish was administered by diocesan clergy from its foundation. The church was made titular in 1969. The previous titular priest was Luis Aponte Martínez, who died in 2012. The present one is Orani João Tempesta, O.Cist., who was appointed in 2014. Exterior Layout and fabric The church has a basilical plan, with a central nave having side aisles and an integral segmental apse. There is no transept, and the nave and apse are under the same flat roof. The exterior is rendered in dull orange. You can see the right hand side of the church in a fairly distant view over the precinct wall in Via Abate Ugone to the south, which shows that the upper nave walls have a row of five round-headed windows in a bunch in the middle, not spread out over its length. A sole window is nearer the apse, and the apse itself is blank-walled. The single window and the external apse do not relate to the interior of the church, but seem to have been intended as a conventual choir. (The precinct wall just mentioned has its own interest, since it is one of the oldest constructions hereabouts. It is of random rubble, and looks like an old farm or vineyard wall perhaps dating back to the 18th century or even earlier.) The "convent" (it never seems to have housed any religious) is to the right of the church. There is a square cloister with ranges on all four sides, the northern one merging into the right hand aisle of the church with a common flat roof. At the corner of the cloister nearest to the church's entrance is a tower campanile, which is a square blank-walled construction with a large vertical rectangular sound-hole on each face and a saddle-back tiled cap. Façade The façade has an external entrance loggia, with a single-pitched sloping roof and four round-headed portals, the square pillars of which are in white. The other surfaces are in the same orange as the rest of the church. Above the loggia, the gabled frontage has a porthole window with a sunk frame in white. There is no other decoration. Note how the roof of the loggia continues seamlessly to the right as the roof of the cloister range facing the street. Over the entrance within the loggia is a table bearing a dedicatory inscription: ''In honorem beatae Mariae virginis, Divinae Providentiae matris Anno Domini MCMXXXVI. Interior The interior is basilical in layout, with a central nave flanked by side aisles separated by arcades. The arcade piers are square, clad in green marble and with imposts from which the archivolts spring rather than proper capitals. There is a side chapel at the end of each aisle, entered through an arch. The interior is entirely covered with frescoes by Igino Cupelloni, notable among which is the one in the apse depicting Our Lady in glory being venerated by angels, in an attractive and slightly naïve naturalistic style. On the triumphal arch of the apse is an Annunciation. Access According to the Diocese, the church is open from 7:00 to 22:00 daily (that is, with no lunchtime closure which remains unusual in Rome). Liturgy Mass is celebrated (parish website, July 2018): 7:30 (not July-August), 9:00, 18:30; Sundays and Solemnities 8:00, 10:00 (not July-August), 11:30, 18:30, 20:00. The church has the privilege of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The Solemnity of Our Lady, Mother of Providence is on 25 October. External links Official diocesan web-page Italian Wikipedia page Parish website Info.roma web-page Roman Despatches - blog with gallery Category:Catholic churches Category:Outside the walls - South-West Category:Dedications to the Blessed Virgin Mary Category:Parish churches Category:20th century